CLOVIS — Thousands of track and field athletes, coaches, families, and fans descended on Buchanan High School’s Veterans Memorial Stadium for the start of the 105th CIF State Track and Field Meet on Friday. And as the temperature reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the national debate over transgender athletes competing in women’s sports became the hottest topic of all in West Clovis.

Outside the gates on Friday were a group of 10 protesting against trans athletes in female sports, and nearby a handful of counter-protestors. Up above, an airplane circled the venue with a banner connected to its tail reading “No boys in girls sports!”

Sparking the conversations and demonstrations has been the success of transgender female athlete AB Hernandez, a junior at Jurupa Valley High School who placed first in women’s long jump and triple jump and fourth in high jump at the Southern Section Masters last weekend. Each place qualified Hernandez to compete at Friday and Saturday’s state championships.

Outside the venue Friday, during the jumping events, a large police presence formed, and a counter-protest was seen being taken into custody after a reported altercation with another demonstrator.

Meanwhile, Hernandez punched tickets to Saturday’s finals in all three events, with the top marks in the high jump at 5 feet, 5 inches, the long jump at 19 feet, 11.75 inches and the triple jump at 40 feet, 9.75 inches.

No local student-athletes competed in those events.

On Tuesday, the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body of high school sports in the state, announced a pilot entry process for this weekend’s events, allowing any biological female athlete who may have otherwise been displaced from gaining entry to the competition by a trans athlete to still compete.

"Under this pilot entry process, any biological female student-athlete who would have earned the next qualifying mark for one of their Section's automatic qualifying entries in the CIF State meet, and did not achieve the CIF State at-large mark in the finals at their Section meet, was extended an opportunity to participate in the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships. The CIF believes this pilot entry process achieves the participation opportunities we seek to afford our student-athletes," the CIF said in a statement.

The CIF released a follow-up statement the next day, which explained that, without naming Hernandez, qualification and placement processes for this weekend’s women’s jumping events would change. 

According to the new policy, if a biological female athlete were to lose a qualifying position to a transgender athlete during Friday’s prelims of the high jump, triple jump and/or long jump, they would still advance to Saturday's finals. As for those finals, the biological female athletes who lose a place on the nine-person podium to a transgender athlete will be awarded the medal for that place.

The CIF ended their announcement saying, “The CIF values all of our student-athletes and we will continue to uphold our mission of providing students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete while complying with California law and Education Code. We now turn our attention to the 1,533 student-athletes participating in the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships."

The pilot process comes following statements made by President Donald Trump threatening to withhold state funding if California continued to allow trans athletes to compete in girls and women’s sports despite his Feb. 5 executive order.

The order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” gives federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administration’s view, which considers non-compliance as any entity that denies “female students an equal opportunity to participate in sports and athletic events by requiring them, in the women’s category, to compete with or against or to appear unclothed before males.”

California has been the subject of heavy criticism from the Trump administration for not barring trans athletes, particularly because of Assembly Bill 1266 which was passed in 2013 and requires public schools to ensure that students can participate in all school activities and sports teams that match their gender identity. The latest jab came from Trump himself on his Truth Social platform Tuesday, just hours before the CIF’s initial announcement of their pilot program.

Trump did not name Hernandez in his post, though the 16-year-old is the only known openly trans athlete in the field. He called the incident “not fair” and “totally demeaning to women and girls.”

“Please be hereby advised that large scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently, if the Executive Order on this subject matter is not adhered to,” he said.

Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who represents the Central District of California, said he had launched an investigation into whether the CIF and Jurupa Unified School District is in violation of Title IX for allowing Hernandez to compete in girls' sports.

Trump continued in his post Tuesday: “The Governor, himself, said it is ‘UNFAIR,’ referring to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s March 6 statements made to conservative influence Charlie Kirk on the first episode of the “This is Gavin Newsom” podcast..

“I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness. It’s deeply unfair,” Newsom told Kirk. “I’m not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.”

In January, Assemblymember Kate Sanchez (R-Temecula), introduced a bill that aimed to “prohibit a pupil whose sex was assigned male at birth from participating on a girls interscholastic sports team.” That bill was killed in committee in January.

Being handed out to members of the media Friday was a printed statement from mother Nereyda Hernandez, who says AB is the subject of political weaponization and harassment.

"As a mother, my heart breaks every time I see my child being attacked, not for a wrongdoing, but simply for being who they are," the statement read. “My child is a transgender student-athlete, a hardworking, disciplined, and passionate young person who just wants to play sports, continue to build friendships, and grow into their fullest potential like any other child. My child has competed fairly, in full compliance with California law and athletic policy. 

“This is her third year in sports, and she already holds THIRD PLACE IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA in the Triple Jump Category. It is not until recently that she has faced an onslaught of hatred, lies, and harassment.”

Hernandez went on to specifically take aim at Trump.

“As a leader of this country, you have the power to unite, to educate, and to uplift rather than destroy. Hate has no place in leadership and NO child, ESPECIALLY not MINE, should become the target of a national campaign of cruelty just because they are different. We need a president who protects ALL children, not just the ones that fit a political narrative.”

The debate is not new to Stanislaus and Merced counties, nor to this year’s Sac-Joaquin Section postseason in which local schools competed in.

At this year’s Central California Athletic League Championships at Turlock High School on May 2, a number of Turlock and Pitman parents voiced displeasure over a trans athlete from Gregori High competing in the girls’ 800-meter race. The athlete finished in eighth place, 0.19 seconds ahead of a Pitman runner, and clinched the final qualifying berth to the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II Championships the following week. The Gregori athlete opted not to participate at divisionals, and their spot was given to an alternate from Woodcreek.

Winning that 800-meter race on May 2 to become the CCAL champion was Turlock High sophomore Mylie Olson, who spoke out alongside her parents against trans athletes in female sports in a social media post on May 12, saying the Gregori runner “is taking spots from other girls,” and that “CIF is doing nothing to protect female athletes.” The post garnered nearly 400 reactions and comments on Facebook, and over 800 shares. A repost to Instagram accumulated over 15,000 likes and over 500 shares.

Megan Olson told the Turlock Journal the following day that it was her daughter’s decision to make the social media post, as it had been a topic of conversation between teammates and athletes from opposing schools for weeks leading up to the CCAL title meet.

“I know from my perspective all the parents have been upset about it, and I hear the kids are upset about it, too, but with a lot of things, people are fearful of what the reaction could be if they do speak out, so Mylie took it upon herself,” Megan Olson said. “Mylie has won every 800-meter race in the CCAL this year, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore what’s happening to her friends and other girls trying their hardest having their seasons ended early.”

Olson said she has received mostly positive feedback from the social media post, though there were a handful of comments disagreeing, including one from an anonymous account that compared the post to bullying and blaming the public pushback stemming from the post as to why the Gregori athlete made the personal decision to not compete.

“It’s not an anti-transgender thing,” Olson said. “But it’s not a fair playing field, and just because Mylie is winning doesn’t mean we’re going to stay quiet.”

In November, Stone Ridge Christian out of Merced forfeited their CIF state NorCal Division VI match against San Francisco Waldorf because of a transgender player, citing religious reasons. 

“At SRC, we believe God’s Word is authoritative and infallible. It is Truth. And as Genesis makes clear, God wonderfully and immutably created each person as male or female,” said Stone Ridge Christian administrator Julie Fagundes in a news release at the time. “We do not believe sex is changeable and we do not intend to participate in events that send a different message. We also have a duty and responsibility to care for the health and safety of our athletes. So after consulting with our students, coaches, and staff, we have made the difficult decision to forfeit Saturday’s game. Standing for Biblical truth means more than the outcome of a game.”

The CIF considered sanctions for the withdrawal, but it never came to fruition.

Chiming in on the situation was Turlock Christian School, releasing their own statement of support to SRC, reading, “In a time when standing firm requires great sacrifice, we applaud these young women and their school for choosing faith over victory and advocating for fair and safe competition for female athletes.”

Meanwhile, Nereyda Hernandez’s statement Friday included the following message:

“President Trump, I invite you to set aside your Bible and your politics. This is not in rejection of faith or policy, but in recognition that neither should be used as weapons of harm…”

Finals for field events will begin at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

— The Associated Press and CalMatters contributed to this report.